‘What We Do in the Shadows’ Season 6 Review: FX’s Vampire Swan Song Strives for Bloody Brilliance
You don’t need to be a vampire to know that forever is a damn long time.
Forget living out an eternity while humanity does whatever the hell it’s doing — even the exaggerated “forever” feels stretched these days. The elevator is taking forever. This week has been forever. That TV show has been on forever.
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As “What We Do in the Shadows” showrunner Paul Simms pointed out at the show’s Paleyfest panel on October 19, six seasons in the current TV climate is pretty damn near forever. Over that time, the vampire comedy from Jemaine Clement went from a cult hit to an even bigger cult hit, which seems like the kind of analysis that would be appreciated by the people who have conquered their whole street (and part of Ashley street).
The show’s final season premieres October 21, with eleven new episodes to send off Nandor (Kayvan Novak), Laszlo (Matt Berry), Nadja (Natasia Demetriou), Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch), their former familiar Guillermo (Harvey Guillén) and vampire bureaucrat The Guide (Kristen Schaal). But for vampires, “forever” is par for the course.
Critics only received three episodes — airing together as a three-part premiere — which is just as well because I’m not remotely ready for it to be over and will be savoring the remaining installments as much as possible. The first sees the vampires reconnect with an old friend; Episode 2 finds Guillermo taking on a new job with the help of Nandor and Nadja while Colin Robinson and Laszlo team up for a dangerous mission; and Episode 3 traps them all in the kind of cyclical sitcom goof that is just infinitely more delightful with this particular group of immortal bloodsuckers.
The rest of the season promises that the vampires and Guillermo will “visit New Hampshire, go to a human dinner party, fête The Baron and conjure a demon,” and that’s just a sampling of the joys that lie ahead. As always with “What We Do in the Shadows,” everything is purposeful — and uncompromisingly hilarious. On the surface, each episode premise is a fun experiment, a new adventure, a chance to try something that the show hasn’t done before within the confines of 30 minutes. But go a little deeper and you’ll find that capital-f Final Season spirit. There are questions asked and answered which have been hovering for years. There’s nostalgia and wish fulfillment, and various opportunities (temptations, even) to reset the entire narrative and return to the comfort of equilibrium — but this has never been a show to shy away from a challenge.
Six seasons in the current TV climate is no slouch, and “What We Do in the Shadows” continues to operate as well-oiled machine, with Simms at the helm and executive producers Jemaine Clement, Sam Johnson, Sarah Naftalis, Yana Gorskaya, Kyle Newacheck, Taika Waititi, Garrett Basch, and Eli Bush (Newacheck and Gorskaya return to direct the first six episodes). With Emmy-nominated experts working on props, costumes, stunts, and production design, this is a time for viewers to greater appreciate the excellence we’ve been lucky to witness for six years.
That goes for the cast as well; for Novak, who slipped in and out of Nandor’s accent at Paleyfest like he shares a mind with his fanged friend, for Berry’s superb and unpredictable cadence, for Demetriou’s ability to switch from murderous to silly, and for the wonderfully dry delivery Proksch has refined into high art (including borderline affectionate use of the word “boners”). The first three episodes are chock-full of that finely honed individual flair and familiar dynamics jumping through hoops.
Guillen gets to tackle Guillermo from an entirely new angle; this is the first “What We Do in the Shadows” season free of his burning desire to become a vampire, and that fundamental shift in the show’s only human is fertile narrative territory. Guillermo’s fresh start ripples into new beginnings for all his undead friends (slash-former employers slash-landlords slash-therapy clients), whether it’s the debate over who gets his old room or the inability to give him space. It grows clearer that Guillermo was the glue holding this kooky coven together, and they’ll need to reassess quite a lot if they want to survive the next few centuries without him.
It’s never easy to nail a final season or episode — or to say goodbye to a beloved show. But the alternative is “forever”; a prolonged departure that overstays its welcome, a show that feels like it’s been on the air for much longer than it has. Vampires and their ageless brethren may disagree, but in the human world we appreciate a good farewell. Even if we’re left craving those final drops, we’ll always have Staten Island.
Grade: B+
“What We Do in the Shadows” premieres Mondays at 10p.m. on FX, with episodes available the next day on Hulu.
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